hackANOMALY
by Technick
Summary: Parzem was a normal player of The World, just playing for fun...that was, until a new threat, even stronger than Cubia, nearly destroys him. But Aura brings him back, and gives him a new power-the last of the Avatars, Uriel the Desecrater. First fic, :D!
1. I

.hack/ANOMALY

I: Another Chance

-

_'The World has become a dangerous place. Not only to Player Killers now run rampant across areas, now we have these anomalies-AI's, Cubia, Avatars, comatose players- in the system. Face it, gentlemen, we've been royally screwed.'_

_-Lead Project Designer Samahara Teyou_

_CCorp Invitational, 2016_

-

_Ugh, this light..._

_Light? But this was a game...how did I see light when I had been surrounded by pain and dark only seconds ago?_

_In fact, where was I? Who was I? _

_What happened?_

_Then 'she' answered me._

"_Do you want to live and arrive at your own truth?"_

_I didn't know how to answer. Did I die? Was this heaven, hell, purgatory? What happened?_

_WHAT HAPPENED?, I suppose, was the main question._

"_If that is your answer..." I could feel the voice's presence leaving me._

"_Wait!"_

_The light seemed to have dimmed when she began to leave. Now it glowed brightly as ever._

"_I...I want to live. I want to find my own truth. Please..."_

_I don't know how, but somehow...'she' smiled at me._

"_Then welcome. Welcome to The World."_

_The light enveloped me, and then it was gone._

_Why did I feel so heavy? Why couldn't my eyes..._

_And then...I was gone, too. But where? Where was I now?_

-

Hulle Granz.

Somehow, things felt fine here.

Well, despite the fact that my PC body was broken, data strings floating out of torn areas on me. Hulle Granz did not do much to ease that pain, but at least I felt better now. But goddamn...

Why did this actually hurt? Why couldn't I feel my controller that was on my desk, or the M2D on my face? What HAD happened that turned me into such a fucking mess?

I should have known...

But no. Everything was always shrouded in a mist so thick you had fight it just for your own personal truth...

At least I was ali-strike that, dying. The pain would be gone soon, and this would all be over...

"_You absolute idiot."_

What the...? The voice again?

"_I still don't know why I'm helping you. I suppose Tri-Edge's word about how 'promising' of a host you would be isn't true after all. But I really SHOULD infect something soon. After all, only pure forms of my strain only take the most powerful...you should do, I suppose."_

And then I saw what was talking to me.

If I had known that The World was so screwed up, I would never had played the game. This 'thing' was just purely terrifying. It was a transparent humanish figure, but yet...not even close to what I would consider 'human'. It had a strange marionette figure to it, with its drooping arms, decorated in a dark green and yellow. Its face was doll-like, small, with only a oval face and two black dots for eyes, with strange 'swords' sticking off the back of its head like hair. Its body, was garbed in a green robe with strange white markings all over it. The legs were just spikes sticking downward from his body. Its arms, though-

That terrified me the most.

They were about twice the size of this thing, which stood about the size of fully grown sequoia. Its arms doubled that length, hanging, clutching some sort of huge voulge in one hand, it being elegantly decorated with even more of the same symbols, and the blades floating, not connected, to the pole itself.

This thing was just...a monster of a, well, monster.

"_Do you want to live?"_ this giant asked me.

"Urgh...yeah, if this pain goes..."

"_Well, then. You will serve me well. Parzem, correct? I am The Desecrater, Uriel. The Ninth Cursed Wave. The Nonexistent Son. And you..."_

The thing, 'Uriel' grabbed me violently in his other free arm, but it wasn't intended. I could tell it was gentle in a strange sort of way.

"_You, Parzem, will be my host."_

The voulge in his other hand disappeared, and he placed it over me, his entire body glowing an eerie verdant green. In but a few moments, my data corrupted self had been remade, in a new form. My left arm, once completely corrupted, was now back, covered in a huge, full arm, gauntlet of green metal. My legs, too, had this strange metal on them. My hair had once stuck up, red and flaming, now cascaded over me like a veil of red, tied in the back with a chain.

"_Parzem, we are one now. I will soon disappear. But you...you will be myself and you. Don't ever waste that power..."_

And he never spoke again.

"But what do I do now? I guess I should head back to town..."


	2. II

.hack/ANOMALY

II: Power

-

The city of immortals...it had always been a place that endured through the many expansions of The World. After all, it was The Eternal City.

Walking out of the Dome, I ran pass a scantily clad Edge Punisher with pink hair, in what I thought to be an armored bra and skirt. Her body was decorated with wave symbols, making her very pretty, but I dared not look. Not many would, if they could feel her mood like I was; it was technically emanating off her.

Running across the huge bridge in front of me, I felt a strange sensation: feeling. How did this...? This was just a game...so why was I feeling salty wind against my face? Then I also remembered that thought I had in the Cathedral: I couldn't feel my controller.

Did this mean...that my consciousness now existed only in The World?

_No,_ I tried denying myself, but to no extent would it help me._ No, dammit! I'm not just...!_

"DAMN IT ALL!" I screamed suddenly, causing many of the players near me to stare in awe. Then came their whispers. I ran off, using the nearest platform to get to the Dock. There I just sat near the gondola to Hy Brassil, too confused and angry to care about much.

"Hey, you!" a voice from behind me yelled.

I turned to find that Edge Punisher I saw at the Dome. She was staring at me sympathetically, almost sorry. Being as angry as I was, I immediately passed it off as a chance to ridicule me.

"What? Come to mock the freak who screams randomly at the Bridge?" I retorted, my voice thick with anger.

"What is wrong with you!? I just came to see how you were doing, you jerk!!" she said in a shocked, angry voice. I noticed the name above her PC-BlackRose.

"Why would I care if you came to see how I was doing? Maybe you haven't noticed, but I'm pretty pissed right now." I got up and began walking away, but the girl grabbed my gauntleted arm.

"You...you...YOU MORON!" she yelled at me, before a fist connected with my face, not exactly throwing me aghast, but certainly surprising me. It stung like hell.

It was about at that time I realized how much I offended the poor girl. She was certainly still mad, but I guess kindness would work now...

"Listen, I'm sorry. I'm just really not in the mood right now, so if you-"

"BlackRose!!"

A high pitched yell came from the crowd, irritating me to no end, especially right now, what with all this yelling.

"Mirelle! Just who I needed. Could you get your mom to talk some manners into this punk?!" BlackRose asked the girl.

This 'Mirelle'...she was a Harvest Cleric dressed in white robes, her hat splitting like bunny ears that covered her pink hair.

"The girl seemed cheerful for a moment, then she just stood there emotionless, and then her face contorted into a mess of anger and she marched towards me.

"You jerk, treating such a pretty girl like BlackRose so rudely! I should so pinch you!" And well...she did.

"Ow, FUCK! That hurt, for real! I'm kind of stuck in the damn game, you know." I yelled at her.

Both BlackRose and Mirelle went quiet for a moment, and then their mouths were moving, but I couldn't hear a thing. Damn private chat.

Then they both turned to me.

"Its decided," Mirelle, now the original player and not the mother, said, a grin forming on her face. "We're gonna be good friends!" she cheered, latching onto me immediately.

"Wha-!? OFF ME!!" I yelled, pushing Mirelle off forcefully.

"You're no fun, Friend-kun." she whined.

"One, I have a name, Parzem. Two, I happen to _like_ being no fun. It usually doesn't attract weirdos like you and Slutty back there." I said, motioning to BlackRose, who in turn flashed me an obscenity from her finger and screamed something unmentionable, directed towards my grandmother.

"Hmph! We're gonna change your attitude towards us, whether you like it or not! We're gonna be friends!" I was surprised BlackRose said this, after what I just called her.

"Annnnnnnnnyways..." Mirelle said in a cheerful tone, "We're newbies too, and we found a great area for leveling up, so won't you come?"

The cruel side of my brain screamed for me to retort in a sour, mean and offensive way with many F-bombs involved, but a new side, a side a never knew existed, told me to accept.

Which I did. "Yeah, sure. I guess."

"YAY!!" Mirelle cheered, glomping me to the ground while BlackRose sighed in the background.

Unbeknownst to them, I had a strange feeling go off inside me. It was something I never had in the real world, nor had I had much of it here...**happiness**. Thats what I felt right now.

And for the first time in a long while, I felt my mouth curve upward, and a smile spread across my face.


End file.
